Ra'eese Aleem

Bio

Ra'eese "Sniper" Aleem is an American featherweight from Muskegon, Michigan, who's spent his career bouncing between weight classes and promotional contracts looking for the right shot at the right time. He held the interim WBA super bantamweight title in 2020-21, lost it controversially to Sam Goodman, and rebuilt at featherweight from there.

The November 2025 win over Mikito Nakano in Tokyo — an IBF eliminator — earned him the mandatory shot at Angelo Leo on May 9 in Atlanta. At 35, he's not getting another swing if it doesn't go his way. That's the kind of pressure that does dangerous things to a fighter, and Aleem has historically responded well to deadline-night occasions.

Stylistically he's a forward-pressing combination puncher with a solid jab and a granite chin. The book on him is — he doesn't have the slip-and-counter craft of the slicker featherweights, but he doesn't need to. He gives you three or four-punch combinations off the front foot, and he keeps coming. The sparring history with Leo from six years ago is the angle that's selling the fight, but the truth is both men have changed since then. May 9 is a properly dangerous night for the champion.